Hi guys

 

The cord got caught in the reclining mechanism of my chair  and got severed. You can see the very fine different colored wires in there. Can this be repaired at an electrical shop? The wires though are extremely fine.

 

I live in Thailand and I cant just go out to try and buy one and I dont think they are available anywhere as Saitek stopped producing so if I cant repair I will need to look at another solution

 

 

Certainly. I'd recommend stripping the back part of the cord back at least 5 inches on both sides of the broken cord, then carefully strip away one inch of insulation from the internal wires. Do this to one wire pair (say, the red wire) at a fime instead of stripping all the wires at once so that you'll know which wires need to be connected to one another.

 

Then fine some Heat Shrink which will barely fit over the internal wires.  You'll need enough to fully cover the wires when you soder them together, leaving at least a 1/4 inch excessive heat shrink on either side of the newly paired wires.  You may also want to find a piece of heat shrink which will fit over all the repaired wires after you're finished repairing them.

 

Place the larger piece of heat shrink over all the un-repaired wires and push it down the thick insulation until it's out of the way.  Then do the same thing with the smaller piece of heat shrink of the first wire pair you choose to repair.  After both the larger and smaller heat shrink is added and out of the way of the working area, you can twist the wires together using a Rail Road Tie technique (the first photo on the page).

 

Here is web page with additional information (I'm sure there are many more, maybe even some videos.

 

Note: Do not apply an excessive about of heat to the wires as you don't want to damage components on the Saitek circuit board.  To ensure you don't damage these components, you may wish to purchase a sodering heat sink.

 

Hope this is helpful

 

Best wishes.

Thanks Dave for the detailed explanation thats a huge help and a relief . Initially I thought the cord was some how severed accidentally but Im now starting to suspect sabotage...by the girlfriend!  the cuts just to clean. 

Ah! She's tired of being a flight Sim widow maybe ?

Ah! She's tired of being a flight Sim widow maybe ?

I try to get her involved but she wont go anywhere near . I fixed the throttle by stripping the wires back and just twisting them and insulating with tape and good to go again but I might invest in some soldering gear for the next electrical problem

If you don't have a soldering iron, and your girlfriend has a nice blowdryer, you can easily use a solder sleeve to repair the breaks, then tape over the shrunk bundle of splices.

 

Check this out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhRCUAYoSXg

My cat keeps sniffing around the wires. I put them in a protective sleeve, but I am dreading the day I come home and all of my Saitek cables are chewed through.